Our family has been enjoying Learning Wrap-Ups in a variety of subjects to drill and practice basic concepts. Each set consists of ten key-shaped plastic flash cards attached at a pivot-point with a string to wrap back and forth from question to answer. After finishing each key, simply look at the back to be sure the string matches up with the self-correcting answer key. I love how my children can study independently with these sets AND they can be used over and over again. They are sturdier and more self-contained than ordinary flash-cards (and don't get lost under the couches!). Learning Wrap-Ups may be purchased one set at a time or in money-saving multi-set kits.

The Spanish Introductory Kit includes four flashcard sets:

Learning Words: Each of these cards involves matching pictures to Spanish words. Subjects covered are: parts of the body, school words, clothing, food, animals, family members, household objects, outdoors and transportation.

Talking Basics: Match numerals, symbols and pictures to Spanish words. Some are in the format of simple fill-in-the-blank sentences. Subjects covered: counting, months of the year, action words, miscellaneous objects, more parts of the body, opposites, directional words, holidays and week days, and telling time.

Making Statements: This set uses simple fill-in-the-blank sentences to practice vocabulary in the following subject areas: fruit, things you can read about (also practices plural endings), miscellaneous objects (while practicing using "an" before vowel words and using "a" before consonant words"), things we wear, objects in a living room, more action words, money and stating a need.

Asking Questions: Topics include: Observing zoo animals, tools and equipment, occupations, places, science class materials, vegetables, miscellaneous nouns, bathroom items, kitchen items, and shopping.

The pocket-sized 31 page booklet provides the English translations for each of the Learning Wrap-Ups (the Wrap-Ups themselves do not use any English). We've found this to be a great place to start studying (particularly when I'm doing things with my children in a group). My children line up and enjoy acting out the Spanish words while they're learning them. The booklet is really handy for oral quizzing as well. The children go back to the Learning Wrap-Ups for independent study. The set also includes two audio tapes. (We haven't really used these yet as we tend to do our oral work together. I'm sure it will be handy for further independent study at some point.)

This is an expensive, but in-depth conversational Spanish program that is very popular with homeschoolers. The text, test booklet and workbook come with nine audio tapes or CDs (depending on the option you choose when you purchase the program) and an optional CD ROM and audio CD set. These options should be looked at very carefully when ordering as the operators often don't know which set is which.

Several months ago we decided to invest in a Spanish program. The question was, which one? My children are quite young, but have been exposed to Spanish during our years in San Diego, from stories such as The Lady of Guadalupe and the Josefina Montoya books from the American Girls series, and the Catholic Parish in downtown Milwaukee which we attend most Sundays which has a vibrant Hispanic community. When my oldest daughter (at age 7 1/2) began showing an interest in learning Spanish, my husband and I thought it was important to take advantage of her interest now, especially since childhood is supposed to be an excellent time to introduce a foreign language.

First we looked at the The Learnables, which is another homeschool-friendly program, but which is completely book-bound: the book has only pictures and the audio portion is in Spanish only. It's a neat idea, but not what we were looking for.

We wanted something that could be listened to in the car (especially to and from daily Mass) or while the children were playing - even when they didn't have the book open.

We heard a little about the Power Glide program (mostly the Latin edition) from fellow homeschoolers and learned that although it covered enough material for a 2-year high school course, that it was enjoyable for young children as well. That was enough for us - we decided to try it.

I have to say that we're really, really happy with it. Although we've hardly cracked the books yet (that will come in time, I'm sure), we've listened to the CDs over and over and are beginning to pick up some of the language. The CDs are filled with classic folk tales and fairy tales in alternating Spanish and English, stories in English that contain some recognizable Spanish words (that can be understood from the context), short (and often funny) conversations in alternating languages and other creative way of introducing Spanish (including some exercises that are designed to be used with the book). Different voices provide a diversity of accents and dialects to broaden exposure to the language.

All the material is suitable for family listening and my own children enjoy the stories enough to request them over and over.

Although the price is rather high (around $150 for the CD set with the CD ROM), we felt that, as a reusable program for all of our children for all of their school years, it was a worthwhile investment.

The cardboard container that the CDs arrive in is rather inadequate - especially for care use. We picked up an inexpensive zip-up CD folder to protect the CDs.